Renewables are not only more expensive than fossil fuels, they also can’t provide baseload power, particularly when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing.
Fact:
This is simply untrue. In most parts of the world, solar and wind are cheaper than coal, and only a third the cost of nuclear power. Batteries and stored hydro can provide most of the backup we need to keep the lights on ‘when the sun don’t shine and the wind don’t blow’, as climate sceptics love to say. In fact, Britain’s National [Electricity] Grid set itself the target of operating completely fossil fuel free by 2030. [Climate sceptics sometimes suggest that Britain will only be able to achieve this because of an excessive reliance on nuclear energy. This is not true either. Britain currently gets only 15 percent of its electricity from nuclear.] Scotland is even more advanced. It currently gets 97 percent of its electricity from renewables (mostly from wind). The other 3 percent comes from gas. And in Australia, South Australia now gets 76 percent of its electricity from renewables and is on track to reach 100 percent by the end of 2027.
As for the costs involved in eliminating fossil fuels from the grid, it is estimated that Australia will need to spend an additional $180 billion in wind and solar generation, plus about $20 billion in various forms of storage. This represents about $800 a year per person, over a ten-year period – or about $2.20 a day. Such an amount will hardly bankrupt the country.